CNBC's Pearson & Pisani: Housing Numbers Show Promise

The numbers for existing U.S. home sales in November are out and they’re modestly better than expected. CNBC's Hampton Pearson was at the National Association of Realtors in Washington when the numbers came out. He gave the figures on “Morning Call.”

Total existing home sales rose 0.6% in November to 6.28 million – up from 6.24 million in October. That’s a 0.1% increase.

In addition, total housing inventory fell 1% to 3.82 million units of existing homes available for sale. The national median price for home sales of all types fell to $218,000 – that’s down from $225,000 a year ago.

Pearson said it was the second month of modest gains for the housing market – and this time the expansion was primarily caused by a 3.1% rise in condo sales.

CNBC's Bob Pisani was at the NYSE and called the numbers “terrific.” He said the bulls will likely embrace the housing data as evidence of a bottom in the market. And Pisani noted: once the market bottoms, it has nowhere to go but up.

Home Sales Data

Existing home sales were up 0.6% in November, and CNBC's Hampton Pearson interprets the data.